Mollā Ṣadrā and the Ruling Elite: Their Relations as Portrayed in the Television Series Roshantar az Khāmūshī (Brighter than the Dark)

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Seyedeh Maryam Hosseini ¹

Mahdi Ebadi ²

Mojtaba Soltani Ahmadi ²

Hooshang Khosrobigi ³

¹ PhD in Islamic History, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

² Associate Professor, Department of History and Civilization of Muslim Nations, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

³ Professor, Department of History, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

10.22067/jhistory.2026.93497.1433

Abstract

Historical films and television series are among the most effective tools for representing the past and shaping public perceptions of history. The present study aims to examine the manner in which the relations between Mollā Ṣadrā and the people of power are represented in the television series Roshantar az Khāmūshī and to assess the extent of its correspondence with the accounts of reliable historical sources. The study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach based on qualitative content analysis and compares court figures depicted in the series with accounts found in written historical sources. Findings indicate that the series draws on artistic reconstruction and ideological meaning-making in its portrayal of the Ṣafavīd period by constructing a dramatic and engaging narrative. Characters with no direct connection with Mollā Ṣadrā in historical sources have been transformed in the visual narrative into his principal supporters or adversaries. In addition, royal authority and the figure of Shāh ʿAbbās and his family have been highlighted, while political conflicts and tensions have been emphasized in order to attract the audience's attention. Therefore, it may be argued that the series moves away from a documentary reconstruction of history and instead offers its own distinctive “second narrative” of the Ṣafavīd era by means of emphasis on dramatic elements and the transmission of ideological and value-laden concepts,

Keywords

History and Cinema

Historical Representation

Ṣafavīds

Cinematic Historiography

Mollā Ṣadrā

Subjects

• History of Islamic culture

---

References

Āshtīyānī, Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn. Sharḥ Ḥāl va Ārāʾ Falsafī Mulāṣadrā. Qum: Markaz Intishārāt-i Daftar Tablīghāt-i Islāmī, 2000/1378.

Chardin, Jean, Safarnāmih Chardin. translated by Iqbāl Yāghmāyī, Tehran: Tūs, 1993/1372.

Corbin, Henry va Jamʻī az Khāvarshināsān. Mulāṣadrā, Fīlsūf va Mutifakir Irānī. translated by Zabīḥ Allāh Manṣūrī. Tehran:  Intishārāt Nigāh, 2022/1401.

Falsafī, Naṣr Allāh. Zindigānī Shāh ʻAbbās Avval. Tehran: Intishārāt-i University of Tehran, 1968/1347.

Fasāyī, Ḥasan Ḥusaynī. Fārsnāmah Nāṣirī. Ed. Manṣūr Rastigār fasāyī, Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 2003/1382.

Hāshimī Muqadam, Amīr. "Bāznamāyī Usṭūrih ʿAṣr Ṭalāyī dar Sīnamāy Thārīkhī Irān (Nimūnah Mavridī: Durih Ṣafavī". Muṭāliʿāt-i Farhangī va Irtibāṭāt. No. 12(autumn 2008/1387): 115-132.

Ibrāhīmī,  Nādir. Mardī dar Tabʿīd Abadī. Chāp Si va Yikum, Tehran: Fikr Rūz, 2023/1402.

Iskandarmunshī, Tārīkh-i ʿĀlam Ārā-yi ʿAbbāsī. Tehran: Dār al-Ṭabāʿa Āqā Sayyid Murtaḍā. 1935/1314.

Iʿtimād al-Salṭanah, Muḥammad Ḥasan Khān. Tārīkh-i Muntaẓam-i Nāṣirī. Ed. Muḥammad Ismāʻīl Riżvānī. Tehran: Dunyā-iy Kitāb, 1985/1363.

Jaʿfarīyān, Rasūl. "Rivāyat Thārīkhī va Rivāyat Sīnamāyī". Kitāb-i Māh Thārīkh va Jughrāfīyā. no. 139 (Āzar 2009/1388): 14-15.

Kamālī Sarvistānī, Mahbud. " Barrisī Zībāyīshināsī Taṣvīrī dar Majmūʻah Mukhtārnāmah (Shakhṣīyatpardāzī,  Rivāyatpardāzī va Ṣaḥnihpardāzī".ʿUlūm-i Insānī va Islāmī dar Hizārih Sivum, no. 2 (Spring 2021/1400): 159-184.

Mīrkhvānd, Muḥammad ibn Khāvandshāh. Rawḍa al-Ṣafā. S.l. s.n. 1853/1270.

Mīrzā Samīʻ, Muḥammad Samīʻ. Tadhkira al-Mulūk va Sāzimān Idārī Ḥukumat Ṣafavī.  Taʿlīqāt Minorsky bar Tadhkira al-Mulūk. translated by  Muḥammad Rajabnīyā. Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 1955/1334.

Naṣr, Sayyid Ḥasan. Tārīkh-i Irān: Dūrih-yi Ṣafavīyān. translated by Yaʿqūb Āzhand. Tehran: Jāmī, 2002/1380.

Navāyī, ʻAbd al-Ḥusayn. Asnād va Mukātibāt Siyāsī Irān (Dūrih-yi Ṣafavīyih). Tehran: Bunyād-i Farhang-i Irān, 1941/1360.

Qadyānī, ʻAbbās. Farhang Jāmiʻ Tārīkh Irān: Tārīkh Ijtimāʻī. Bā Muqaddamah Ghulām Riżā Vaṭandūst. Tehran: Intishārāt Ārūn, 2008/1387.

Roemer, Hans Robert. Tārīkh-i Irān: Dūrih-yi Ṣafavīyān. translated by Yaʿqūb Āzhand. Tehran: Jāmī, 2001/1380.

Ruknzādih Ādamīyat. Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Dānishmandān va Sukhansarāyān Fārs. Tehran: Islāmīyyah, 1960/1339. 

Sāmī, ʿIyn. Shīrāz Shahr Saʿdī va Ḥāfiẓ. S.l. Chāp Mūsavī Shīrāz, 1958/1337.

Savory, Roger. Irān ʻAṣri Ṣafavī. translated by Kāmbīz ʻAzīzī. Chāp Nuzdahum, Tehran: Nashr Markaz,  2012/1391.

Shaʿbānī, Riżā; Raḥmānīyān, Dāryūsh va Mahdī Fakhīmzādih. "Thārīkh va Sīnamā: Hamnishīnī ʿIlm va Hunar". Kitāb-i Māh Thārīkh va Jughrāfīyā, no. 139 (Āzar 2009/1388): 6-13.

Shahbāʾ, Muḥammad va Ghulām Riżā Sahbāzī. "Thārīkh, Iqtibās va Taṣāḥub dar Sīnamā". Hunar-hā-yi Zībā: Hunar-hā-yi Namāyishī va Mūsīqī. No. 2 (autumn and winter 2012 / 1391): 15-24.

Shāmlū, Valī Qulī. Qiṣaṣ al-Khāqānī: Tarīkh Mukhtaṣar Ṣafavīyih. ed. Sayyid Ḥasan Sādāt Nāṣirī. Tehran: Sāzimān Chāp va Intishārāt Vizārat Farhang va Irshād-i Islāmī, 1997/1375.

Sumer, Faruk. Naqsh Turkān Anatolia dar Tashkīl va Tawsiʿah Davlat Ṣafavī. translated by Iḥsān Ishrāqī va Muḥammad  Taqī Imāmī. Ed. Alī Faqīhī, Tehran: Nashr Gustarih, 1992/1371.